Cat cafe, KitTea, sets sights on San Francisco

At long last, a business need you probably didn’t even know existed is being met: San Francisco may be getting its own cat cafe.

Before you start fostering fantasies of Whiskers donning an adorable tweed blazer and becoming the first poet laureate of the feline world, you should know that the cat cafe isn’t a place to serve your own fuzzy friends a catnip-flavored frappe.

Rather, the cleverly named KitTea is more of a pet rental business for people who don’t have the time, money, or cat-friendly landlords to get a cat of their own.

KitTea founders Courtney Hatt and David Braginsky say the San Francisco store will let patrons “sit back, take a deep breath and relax with a cat on your lap and a kettle of tea steeping by your side.”

There’s only one catch. The owners need to find the right building to lease, the right neighborhood in which to lease it, and the property manager that will allow this kind of thing inside their storefront.

Not to mention the myriad food and safety regulations.

Hatt said the company has not made a formal proposal to the city just yet. Hatt and Braginsky will finalize their permits once they find the right location.

She said the city authorities have been helpful in guiding them along the right path. However, appeasing the proper food and safety authorities is a different story.

“We are in communication with one of the managers at the San Francisco Food & Safety Program, his immediate response was ‘No’ when we mentioned cat and tea in the same sentence, since tea is considered food,” said Hatt in an email.

Hatt said KitTea is working around this by splitting the cat oasis and the cafe into two separate sections divided by a closed off hallway. Patrons will buy their tea and head down the hall into the oasis if they so choose.

“This concept received a confident thumbs up from our contact at the Food Safety Program,” said Hatt.

Hatt says they still need to discuss with the San Francisco Environmental Health Department to see what permits are required for housing cats all day and night in the cafe.

So where would they put it?

Hatt says her”dream space” has a minimum of 1,600 square feet, features lots of natural light, with a lease that doesn’t break the bank.

“Commercial real estate is not easy hunting in San Francisco these days! So many amazing spaces are just completely out of our price range and are likely more affordable for say The Gap,” said Hatt.

Hatt said they have narrowed their neighborhood search down to Hayes Valley, The Mission and The Lower Haight.

There are just so many questions beyond just the location: How many cats, what kind of cats, where are you getting these cats, how many humans will be allowed near said cats at a time, how are you caring for them, and when can we play?

KitTea says it will partner with a local San Francisco cat rescue shelter to pick approximately 10 cats that “will be selected based on their personalities and whether they have been socialized to be comfortable around both humans and other cats.”

The 10 cats lucky enough to get drafted into this “cat oasis” will experience “the ultimate nirvana in comparison to being left in a cage with an uncertain future,” so long as said nirvana is in accordance with the guidelines set by the The Association of Shelter Veterinarians.

And if the cats are cool with sharing the proposed 1,600 square foot nirvana with potentially 30-35 humans at max capacity.

San Francisco may have the first one in the United States so long as it beats the proposed cat cafe of Boston to the punch. In the case of Boston, that means finding a way to satisfy those pesky regulators on the Boston Board of Health.

Time will tell if Hatt and Braginsky’s project will find a footing in the city. But, considering San Francisco’s increasingly Internet-based culture, a cafe experience centered around the unofficial mascot of the World Wide Web is a natural fit.